Is this a project even worth carrying out?

[KingFeraligatr]

I have an idea for a big quest mod, but I have no idea if the idea is even worth carrying out. First of all, my current mental state makes it almost impossible for me to care about doing anything or have any motivation. Second of all, I'm currently juggling so many game responsibilities it's mind boggling. Third of all, some if the ideas could be considered ..... controversial... to some sects of the fandom. Fourth, it's rather ambitious and and I plan to work on it alone.

Well, here we go with the mod idea itself:

Premise:The player joins forces with a hypercompetent Imperial Legion special forces unit. The player, the leader of the unit Zeebeetum-Zei, the other members of the unit, and other unaffiliated characters work together to take down a terrorist cult that has high pull somewhere. Barring Zeebeetum (who has an Oblivion-esque Essential-esque script at all times and respawns), the player can kill anyone they want and the plot will adapt if they're named. Generic NPCs can respawn if I allow it and killing them doesn't necessarily do anything. Another gimick I want is to give the player at least two ways to handle a current problem and for the questline to be mostly unbreakable unless they are exceptionally stupid. I have lore and plot things made up that I can extrapolate if asked. I already decided I have to go back to the drawing board to redo certain things.

I figure that this mod will be controversial mostly due to my intention to the questline unbreakable and me having essentially an always Essential NPC in the game and mod (I know Essential NPCs are loathed in the fanbase, though I don't really mind them in low quantities). Feel free to give me feedback, ask questions, and determine if this project is even worth going for.

[legoless]

Sure, go for it.

[Marisa Kirisame]

Why do you even need Essential flags on NPC; as far as I can remember the only thing it does is a message display once you kill that NPC.

As for the mod, that's lotsa heavy scripting; although I'd really like to see something like SWAT 4 game here in MW.

[KingFeraligatr]

The scripting really isn't that heavy. Here's the base script I wrote to simulate Oblivion Essential NPC behavior:

begin g2_essential_test_script

;the aim of this script is to make a character act like "essential" characters on Oblivion
;the npc/creature that this is attached to should have "corpses persist" ticked so they don't disappear or "respawn" ticked so that they come back to life, but not both since that causes problems
;getdeadcount should not be used, because the actor could die many times. use a global variable or something else to track death

float timer
short dead

if( menumode == 1 )
return
endif

if( dead != 0 )
set timer to ( timer + Getsecondspassed ) ;timer for resurrection
if( timer >= 20 )
resurrect ;revive
set timer to 0
set dead to 0;we're no longer dead
endif
endif

if( onactivate == 1)
if( dead == 0 ) ;if alive, allow talking
activate
elseif( dead != 0 ) ;anything else, do not allow the player to steal from us
messagebox "This person is unconscious!"
endif
endif

if( ondeath == 1 ) ;we died
messagebox "Someone has fallen unconscious!"
set dead to 1
endif

end g2_essential_test_script
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It's a bit iffy, but it works without flaw at (as long as you're in the NPC's cell, MW can't process the NPC's attached script if you're in a different cell from them or in a cell that's too far away for exteriors).

[Marisa Kirisame]

Oh, sorry, I missed the note about the Oblivion-type Essential being used and thought you wanted to check the MW flag.

I'm not talking about the "essential" feature being hard to implement - but the scripts that handle the plot and decisions. In particular, their foolproofness. The way you present it, it seems that there are going to be a lot of plot forks. The scripting wouldn't be that complex on itself, but as the quest related scripts rack up, your chance for missing something increases.
In other words, your possibility of letting a possible bug in your plugin increases.